NASA's Puffin: Your Personal Aircraft?

For more videos, go to www.discoverynews.com. Engineers from the NASA Langley Research Center unveiled plans to build a personal flying machine that would run on a set of electric motors. Jorge Ribas reports on the aptly named Puffin, which is still in the early stages of development.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• NASA
• puffin
• personal
• flying
• machine
• aircraft
• airplane
• helicopter
• cool
• tech
• technology
• Discovery
• News
• Jorge
• Ribas

[60knightsix]

None of these ideas will ever come to fruition. Aviation as it exists today is out of control, in "controlled" airspace, no less. I've seen idiots in 2-seat Cessnas damn near kill each other...what do you think will happen with a sky full of these running amok ???? And they'll come crashing down on your house, family car, and anything else unfortunate enough to be under one when it quits flying. Knightsix

[wccrispy]

We're wasting national resources to come up with crap like this? How about finding a way to convince to automotive industry to make carbon fiber and composite cars with aluminum engines and other aluminum parts a standard. it the 21st century for Pete's sake. If you reduce weight, you improve the power-to-weight ratio which means you can essentially use less power/fuel to move the same vehicle.

[brokenbones199]

Because people weren't bad enough at driving...

Here have a personal plane!

[haruruben]

NASA to humanity: "Please enjoy your new flying coffins

(ahem, please don't cut our funding... please... we have ideas n stuff)"

[jetmechanic1000]

Made something like this on a small scale back in the 80's using a MRC 5 channel radio and a couple of .049 cox engines, not electric. Nasa never backed me, nope, just mowing lawns in the neighborhood did that.

[ejasonrichmond]

this design leaves the pilot in a prone position and is not safe.

[SilentbeastLum]

yep cause we are all rich

[wccrispy]

@zenoparodie I'm right there with you man. One of the reasons I want to vote for Ron Paul is because of all the true budget cuts he plans to implement with 1 Trillion dollars being cut the first year and bringing all of the troops home from around the world as well.

[boostedld9j]

haha he said poop

[jac5562]

@wccrispy gas/combustible fuel isnt even needed they had electric carsi in 1997

[zenoparodie]

@wccrispy perhaps if the US didnt have such a fucking enormous defence budget we could come up with soemthing good